The LaValley of the Shadow of Death (clean version)

[Ok, my first draft of this post was angry and obscenity-laden. Let's take a deep breath and try it again with a better mindset.]

So Gavin LaValley got a card in 2018 Bowman. It's first first mainstream card since 2014 when he was in Bowman Draft and Panini Prizm Draft, both cards I rainbowed pretty hard, eventually getting down to a handful of scare parallels remaining. So I figured I might see about going hard after his 2018 Bowman card, too.

A while back, Mr. LaValley shared photos on social media of him signing 2018 Bowman autographs, but they didn't end up in this product. I guess that means they're going to be included in 2018 Bowman Chrome..? Either that or they ended up on the proverbial cutting room floor, I suppose.

But still he's got a base card ("paper") and a Chrome card in 2018 Regular Bowman. I figured I'd get a good foothold in a rainbow and I ended up winning an auction for a player break of 12 cases (8 JUMBO BOXES + 4 HOBBY BOXES). I was pretty sure that would land me some good stuff. The only question I had was if I'd walk away with only 1 printing plate or maybe I'd get lucky with 4 or 5 printing plates.

Well, queue the sad trombone. Not even one stinking base refractor! Just a fat stack of each base card and NOTHING ELSE. Wow. By far the worst player break I've been involved in. Never have I gotten such a brutal shaft, and this was easily the largest break I'd ever gotten into, so it just doesn't make much sense from a mathematical standpoint. I was crestfallen when I went through the package. I almost quit collecting right then and there. Twelve freaking cases -- not boxes, CASES! -- and not even one lousy parallel? That's ridiculous. The cardboard gods really kneed me in the crotch there. I mean, it only cost me a bit over a blaster, so it wasn't a huge financial hit, but still devastated me emotionally.

To the breakers credit, he threw in a bonus pack of 2018 Series One and a pouch of penny sleeves. That was a nice gesture, I guess. (There wasn't anything good in the pack.)

And anyways, I decided I'm not going to rainbow this card now. Too painful. Plus, turns out there are 5x7 Topps website-only parallels of it. Listen up: I vow right now here today to NEVER rainbow any card that has any 5x7 versions. I HATE oversized cards. Maybe an occasional big oddball can make it's way into my collection, but those 5x7 cash-grabs Topps puts out with various numbered parallels really irk me. I will never chase them.

2014 Panini Prizm Draft sure were ugly cards, but you gotta respect that there were no oversized versions. And no printing plates to chase! That makes for a very supercollector-friendly rainbow. I recently scored the /10 gold parallel of the non-auto.

That leaves me with only one last card for the MASTER RAINBOW. Just need the non-auto 1/1 "Infinite Black Prizm" (Panini's version of a superfractor). I've never seen it for sale, but I'll keep an eye out and hope to land it someday. I've got the auto version of it, as you can see in the upper right.

While I'm not happy with how '18 Bowman treated me, I'm still trying to score low-numbered LaValley parallels when I can find them reasonably priced on eBay.

Paper yellow plate.

Chrome Magenta plate.

Superfractor.

As for LaValley, last I checked he was hitting .214 in AA. Hmm.. well. I hope he starts raking and becomes the next Mike Trout, but regardless, it was quite the ride supercollecting him for a while there.

Thanks for reading.

A high-end pack break of 2005 Retired

I put in a best offer and ended up winning this pack of 2005 Topps Retired for thirty-ish bucks. That's the original "retail price" ($29.99) plus shipping, so that works for me. They typically sell for substantially more than that these days, like $60 per pack or $200 for a hobby box of 5 packs. I'm crazy for 2004 Retired, but I also like 2003 and 2005 from the "Retired Trilogy" of products. Odds are the promised auto in this pack will be a Rick Cerone or some minor semi-star of that ilk, but hey, maybe I'll beat the odds and pull a Nolan or Gwynn or somebody like that.

I haven't opened it yet as I type this, but let's "live" rip it right now.

Maybe P-town Tom would like this wrapper as a bonus item for his Ryne Sandberg collection..? I'll open it carefully to keep it somewhat collectable, just in case.

This actually arrived a few days ago, so I'm pretty proud of myself for the restraint to wait to open it. I suppose the fact that I'm 99% sure the one promised auto in the pack will be a disappointment has helped me exercise some self-restraint. I've opened my share of 2004 Retired and been disappointed every-fuckin-time, so I've got no expectations that my first experience of ripping 2005 Retired will be any different. But, ever the optimist, I'm holding out a shred of hope for somebody good.

2005 Retired is the only one of the trilogy that I still need the base set for, so even if that auto isn't anybody, the I guess the 4 base cards will still be good to help me creep toward that setbuild.

Ya'll ready? Let's do this!

**ripppppp**

Well we're off to a great start (*eye roll*) with the sticker from the encased auto being stuck to the base cards in the pack. Great job, Topps.

I like Jim Piersall.. but.. Meh.

I like J.R Richard. But meh.

Hey, here's a cool upside-down card. Let's flip it around..

Very nice! Johnny Bench gold parallel /500.

And now for the moment of truth...

Ouch! Our auto is Roger Craig, definitely among the worst possible pulls. No surprise. Would have at least like to have pulled a "nobody" player like Glenn Hubbard or Rafael Santana.. but a "nobody" manager? Weak!

So yeah, that pack was definitely a bust. Had I known the contents, I wouldn't have paid more than $3 for it, with the Johnny Bench parallel being the only card to perk my interest at all, but still not being enough to salvage my auto being a championship-less manager. Gawdamit! Anybody want that Craig? APRSmith? Honestly, thanks to the heavy case, this card isn't even worth what it would cost to ship it. Plus the case is scuffed (lower left), so it's not even worth salvaging to put another card in it. Sucks. Waste of money, though I was pretty sure it would be going in. At least I didn't spend more than the 30-ish original retail price.

That's it. Thanks for stopping by.

The Last Pack of Baseball Cards I Will Ever Open

..well, I'll probably open another pack of baseball cards someday, but I think I'm through with expensive ultra-deluxe packs that burn your wallet to ash and break your heart.

In my recent posts, I've chronicled the bleak saga of unwisely spending over $500 on 9 premium packs of baseball cards. 2004 Topps Retired Signature Edition got a tight grip on me. The draw is that each pack includes an uncirculated--meaning "it comes in its own hard plastic case"-- certified autograph card of a player from yesteryear. It could be a minor star like Tony Armas or Ron Kittle. Or if you luck out and beat lottery-winning odds, you could theoretically pull someone like Hank Aaron or Stan Musial.

I've opened 8 out of my 9 packs so far. Sadly, I've pulled only "commons", most of which I had already bought for $5-10 each on eBay over the past couple months.

So it's fair to say this little investment of mine was akin to giving a homeless drifter $511.95 and in return he gave me a dead pigeon he'd been saving for a few days.

But here's my one last shot at redemption: The Final Pack. Will I save a modicum of face my pulling a good card? Maybe I'll even get a fairytale ending by pulling a great card. I'd settle for anything I don't already have, honestly. I originally planned to spread these packs out over a few weeks, but since my feelings turned from excited optimism to angst-ridden disappointment. Now I'd rather just put this whole mess behind me.

So enough talk, let's rip 'er open.

[To add insult to injury, most of the hard cases fresh from packs already had a scuff mark on the front right. Thanks a lot, Topps, for treating your cards so poorly.]

Ferguson Jenkins. Blah, already got him. And it's a Group G common (EEV [estimated eBay value] around $5-15). But at least he's a HOF'er. Not a great pull, but could have been worse.

The expensive haul of inexpensive cards

So this wraps up my tragic comedy of errors spending $500+ on cards that have an EEV around $75 total. I already owned 6 of the 9 autos. Yep, there were just three I needed, which I likely could have bought for around $30 total. I gambled and lost. Oh well, it was kinda fun for a while there. The odds were against me and I couldn't pull off a win. Lesson learned. Money drained.


Here's the checklist of 2004 Topps Retired autos, personalized for my current needs (as of 6/29/13). Red = Need it. Green = Got it. Orange = I got 2 of it (orange-for-red trade offers welcomed!)

Group A: Cal Ripken; Nolan Ryan; Carl Yastrzemski; Robin Yount;

Group B: Henry Aaron; Ernie Banks; Stan Musial; Duke Snider

Group C: Johnny Bench; Yogi Berra; Whitey Ford; Bob Gibson; Dwight Gooden; Tony Gwynn; Don Mattingly; Brooks Robinson; Mike Schmidt; Tom Seaver; Ozzie Smith

Group D: Wade Boggs; John Candelaria; Jose Canseco; Gary Carter; Carlton Fisk; Ralph Kiner; Paul Molitor; Paul O'Neill; Frank Robinson; Ryne Sandberg; Darryl Strawberry; Don Zimmer;

Group E: Buddy Bell; Rod Carew; Bucky Dent; Rob Dibble; Dennis Eckersley; Tony Fernandez; Rollie Fingers; George Foster; Ceasar Geronimo; Kirk Gibson; Goose Gossage; Orel Hershiser; Al Hrabosky; Greg Luzinski; Tony Oliva; Dave Parker; Jimmy Piersall; Alan Trammell;

Group F: Davey Lopes;

Group G: Tony Armas; Vida Blue; Tom Brunansky; Bill Buckner; Orlando Cepeda; Darren Daulton; Darrell Evans; Bobby Grich; Ferguson Jenkins; Wally Joyner; Jimmy Key; Ron Kittle; Bill Madlock; Jack McDowell; Dale Murphy; Graig Nettles; Al Oliver; Bobby Richardson; Ron Santo; Dave Stieb; Bruce Sutter; Ron Swoboda; Luis Tiant; Earl Weaver; Maury Wills;

Group H: Elroy Face